Lower Your Taxes

Enrich Your Community

There are at least three easy ways you can pay less taxes and increase your contribution to the Eastern Shore Public Library Foundation (ESPLF).

Bundling

No, you don’t need a bed and a board and two warm bodies to do this. If you make annual contributions of $10K or more to the library and other worthy charities, consider making your donation for both 2018 and 2019 in a single bundle before the end of fiscal 2018 or 2019. Under current tax law, you must have deductions of at least $12K before you can start to use itemized deductions on your tax return. If you donate $10K this year, you get no tax break. If you donate $10K next year too, you get no tax break. But if you make total itemized donations of $20K this year, you can lower your taxable income by Eight Thousand Dollars. And that, is more than a drop in the bucket.

Direct Stock Transfer

When you donate stock directly to the ESPLF’s broker, you pay no capital gains tax. Let’s say you have 100 shares of Feelgood Industries that you bought at $10 and the stock has risen to $110. If you sell the stock and write us a check, you also have to write the Federal and State Governments a check for the tax on a $10,000 capital gain.

Instead, if you transfer the stock directly to the ESPLF’s broker, the ESPLF gets the full $11,000, you pay no capital gain taxes, and you get a deduction of $11,000 on your tax return.

IRA or 401(k) Direct Transfer

When you have the Trustee of your IRA or 401(k) transfer money as part of your required minimum distribution directly to the ESPLF, that amount is excluded from your gross income. You not only have a reduced taxable income, you can also take the standard deduction. Or, if you itemize, the lower gross income reduces some of the limitations imposed on itemized deductions.